Plated Granite Climbing in West Cochise Stronghold

I’m not sure how I heard about the desert wilderness granite climbing area called Cochise Stronghold in SE Arizona 40 miles from the Mexican border, but I think I first peeked a look at these domes from Fred Beckey’s 100 Classic Climbs of North America. So when work brought me to Phoenix in the winter, I thought there was little excuse not to check out its desert domes with their abundant featured granite, chicken heads and alligator plates uncommonly found in this rock type.

My first concern coming to Cochise was that wilderness Trad climbing areas can often be pretty stiff and there was some reputation for weird, sometimes finicky protection. However, at least for the classic moderates in West Cochise, I found abundant protection and the chicken head protection was better than the sloping plates with slings that slink off which I foresaw in my mind. Instead of major runouts “because there are chicken heads” (whether adequate or not) on blank slab, I found heavily featured rock unlike anything I’ve seen in granite (other than Shuteye Ridge) with large grains that typically were extremely sticky. 

Conditions

East and West Cochise have their own flavor and are only connected by circumnavigation so on this trip we just checked out West Cochise Stronghold during January with temperatures of ~60/30 F. It was not too cold to camp, but a SW facing wall could have pretty cold rock causing even me to blow into my hands mid-pitch before the sun came out.

Winds of 5mph in Tombstone would be breezy high on the domes and a 15 mph forecast could get pretty rad high up. The book said +15mph on domes whatever is forecasted and it was pretty accurate of my experience. We found climbers around but never more than two parties (including ourselves) on a route.

Road’s End

The Road’s End climbing area is the furthest from the nearest town of Tombstone (yes, THAT Tombstone) by a little over an hour. Some people say it is accessible by car but even in what I considered good conditions, you need at least an average Subaru clearance for the stretch from Council Rocks to Road’s End for a prolonged drive up what felt like a rocky wash. Luckily, all the camping in Cochise is at the trailheads to the climbing areas so we only needed to do the drive out here once. There was less camping than expected (1 large pull around and 3-4 single back ins), but no one else was camping here.

Our first day here we decided to warm up to West Cochise on Four Course Meal (5.7 4p 400ft Trad) which was pretty chill, climbed over a window, had some fun cracks and helped me start to get a feel of the friction on the rock and what people consider ‘slingable’ for a plate (which everyone calls chicken heads here). Its been a bit since I’ve done much Trad multipitch so it was great to get back used to it.

The next day we hit the main attraction: Moby Dick on Whale Dome (5.8 6p 700ft Trad) which was one of Fred Beckey’s Classics. It definitely fit the bill with some thoughtful climbing alongside a large flake system running up the side of the dome with crack climbing, liebacking, friction slab, featured granite and lots of plating. There are a couple iconic plate-only anchors on it that I think give it part of the the appeal. It did get a little rad the finishing pitch’s runouts with the wind making it hard to sling a chickenhead one handed while my eyes watered, the sling blew around and my body pushed by gusts.

The Sheepshead

The biggest rock on the West side of Cochise is The Sheepshead. Sadie could never really see the sheep, but I think I could… Regardless, it has a lot of long multi pitch routes, mostly in the 5.10 range but those sections are typically bolted. We decided to get on the highly rated Ewephoria (5.8 5p 750ft mostly sport). 

The first pitch was mostly like a slippery Yosemite 5.8 Trad lead, but then after that it became fun face climbing on plates / slab / granite features. It was kinda over bolted at times unless there were plates (even though you couldn’t always comfy sling the plates? I don’t get the bolting strategy). There was a ton of fun movement with 5.8 level of holds (for once, not 5.8 Yosemite slab slivers), including two roof-like aspects. The finish on The Climb Too Tough to Die (5.9) on a pull over roof + arete you had to slap was icing on the cake. Almost felt like gym climbing. 

Getting Back Into It

Really an amazing trip to a new climbing area that is inconvenient to access for me. After a little warm up, I felt focused on the wall and less activated by runouts, slab or exposure than I’ve been in the past. I felt strong and confident in a way I haven’t been in years and I really thank frequent gym climbing for getting me there after some injuries and near-misses over the past several years made my relationship with climbing more difficult. Feeling like I’m getting back at it and it feels GREAT.